


Like A Lady

by Celesma



Category: Ib (Video Game)
Genre: Family, Gen, Trans Character, Trans Garry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-07
Updated: 2014-02-07
Packaged: 2018-01-11 11:25:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 589
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1172481
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Celesma/pseuds/Celesma
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She'd never had a sister before. More to the point: she'd never <i>been</i> a sister.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Like A Lady

**Author's Note:**

> I'm pretty sure Garry canonically identifies as male, but when I first encountered him, I was convinced he was actually a transwoman. Headcanon is hard to discard, however, so here's a little piece featuring the perspective of trans!Garry.

"Why do you talk like a lady?"

Certainly, she'd been asked that question a lot over the course of her lifetime; but here, in this museum populated by horrors that lived in paintings (or took the form of beady-eyed dolls, to her eternal dislike), it had still taken her by surprise. Most people would have prioritized their own safety rather than wonder aloud why their only other companion in this building – more mausoleum than museum – didn't speak in a way that comported with their outward appearance. Such was the curiosity of children, she supposed.

_It is because I am a lady_ , Garry wanted to say – _had_ said, to so many people before her – but Ib was only nine and most likely wouldn't understand this answer. And while Garry did not want to lie to a child – she'd let adults lie to her in her own youth, telling her that she was a boy and had better start acting like one, and suffered much pain for it – she found it hard to formulate a satisfactory response.

Fortunately, only a few seconds passed before she found an answer that sounded just right. "I'm not sure when I started speaking this way, to be honest. I've just always liked it. And anyway, it's a gentle way of speaking... it's better to be gentle than rough, right?"

She smiled down at Ib, and to her relief, Ib only nodded solemnly and returned to her examination of their surroundings. _Such a serious child!_ Garry thought, her affection for her only growing. (Moments later the child would become visibly upset, demonstrating her growing trust in the lavender-hued stranger, and Garry would do her expert best to console her.)

As far as her answer went: it had not been a lie. Garry had spoken like a girl, felt like a girl, for as far back as she could remember. She enjoyed making bento lunches for the boys at school, holding tea ceremonies at home, playing with dolls (dolls that bore _no_ resemblance to the creepy things that so enjoyed tormenting her, she might add) and – perhaps predictably – bought her first pair of heels when she became of age. And the fact of her womanhood was partially why she'd visited the museum to begin with: she'd heard that the Guertena exhibit included a couple of pieces centered on male subjects that dressed to what they felt was their _true_ gender. That was always something she could get behind.

She had no desire to try and change her own appearance (or even her name), however out of place she felt in it sometimes. It was the body she'd been born with, a body that she chose to clothe and accessorize to her liking. And, after all, the male physique _did_ have its uses from time to time: most especially whenever it came time to protect Ib from the avaricious Ladies in Red, or to move heavy obstacles out of their path. All the while, their relationship continued to edge out of its stages of tentative partnership, into something approaching a true family bond. It was a wonderful thing to have someone completely accept you as you were, even if that person was too young to fully understand.

She'd never had a sister before. More to the point: she'd never _been_ a sister. And despite their terrible situation – despite the crazed women scuttling across the floors and the disembodied eyeballs and the spitting paintings (and those _dolls_!) – Garry believed that, in time, she could get used to the arrangement.


End file.
